Book Worm

By Suzanne Nash

It’s Christmas time and normally I’d be bustling around trying to do last minute baking and shopping but thanks to the pandemic I’m actually ahead of the game this year.  That means that when they called for snow today, I could happily sit by the fire and write without the usual stress of finishing things up at the last minute.

I am thrilled to say that I have a lot of wonderful books to choose from this Holiday season and if you are too late to get them as gifts then it is a great time to stock up some books to look forward to in the new year.

The Magdalen Girls by V. S. Alexander takes place in Dublin Ireland and begins in 1962 with Teagan Tiernan being unfairly sent to the Magdalen Laundries which resides in the gated convent of the Sisters of the Holy Redemption.  The Mother Superior, Sister Anne seems to take an instant dislike to Teagan and is cruel and hard on her.  All the girls are given new names upon their arrival and trapped within the walls with little to no freedom. Teagan makes friends with two of the other girls, Nora and Lea and together they plot to escape.  But, unfortunately, once you are sent to the Magdalen Laundries you are considered soiled women and you won’t find any refuge or mercy out in the world.  If you have never heard of the Magdalen Laundries in Ireland then it really is worth looking into the histories of them, for they were very real and the basis of this novel. 

God Pretty in the Tobacco Field is one of two books by author Kim Michele Richardson that I will review this month.  It’s 1969 in Nameless Kentucky and Ruby Lyn Bishop has been living and working on her Uncle’s tobacco farm ever since she was orphaned. Her Uncle is a tough man but has provided a good home for Ruby Lyn, but she is ready for a change.  She is 16 and wants to see more of the world and explore her artistic potential.  She has a rather strange artistic talent of making fortune tellers for people and there is magical thinking within her heart that seems to imbue her work with power. She is also involved with her Uncle’s field hand, Rainey Ford, who happens to be a man of color. While her uncle is not prejudiced against Rainey, plenty of others in the community are and Ruby Lyn has to find her way through her desires to go beyond the strict boundaries that seem to hem her in.

The Sisters of Glass Ferry is the second book by Richardson and once more takes place in Kentucky.  Honeybee is the father of twin girls, Flannery and Patsy Butler.  They used to be joined at the hip but since they became teenagers they are as unalike as can be. Patsy (the Queen Bee) is prissy and prim and determined to be popular.  She isn’t interested in the moonshine business that Honeybee runs but would rather be out with her friends.  Flannery, however, learns the trade from her father and when he dies, she is determined to take over the business. The tension between the two girls comes to a head when Patsy heads off to prom and Flannery, with no date, is left to work her shift at the diner. Patsy never makes it to the prom and never comes home.  Two decades later Patsy has come back to identify the body of her sister and discover what exactly happened that night.

The Guest List will fit the bill if you are a fan of mysteries. Author Lucy Foley has written a thriller with bite.  On an island off the coast of Ireland a wedding is going to be held between a TV star and a magazine publisher and everything just has to be perfect! Unfortunately, the night of the wedding someone turns up dead.  I won’t spoil it by telling you who turns out to be the murder victim, but the alternating points of view of the narrators keeps this novel interesting. It reminded me of an Agatha Christie mystery and islands are such great backdrops for murder, so it ticked all of the boxes for me!

If you want a wonderful, funny and poignant read then Henry’s Sisters, by Cathy Lamb, is perfect. The Bommarito sisters are quite the handful. Isabelle is a photographer; Cecilia is a teacher and Janie is an author. They all have their hang-ups and two of them have tried to get far away from their toxic mother, River, but they get drawn back to the family home when she has to go in for heart surgery.  They must all rally together to take care of their brother, Henry, who is autistic as well as their grandmother who has Alzheimer’s and thinks she is Amelia Earheart. It is sad, touching and laugh aloud funny as they navigate their way through a difficult situation.  Henry is the sweetest, dearest person who manages to keep them all moving in the right direction, despite their inevitable fallouts.  I really loved this book and didn’t want it to end!

The Promise Girls is another family drama that explores relationships between sisters and their mother.  Marie Bostwick’s novel touches on the idea of what talent and genius really is.  Minerva Promise has written a book about how she had three girls, all test tube babies, from genius donors which meant her children were prodigies in their fields of art, writing and music.  At a young age she paraded the Promise girls out to the world to show them off and lived on the royalties from her book tours with them.  Until Joanie, the eldest, revolted and brought everything tumbling down. Twenty years later, where are the girls and how have they excelled in their specialties? Filmmaker Hal Seager is determined to find out what their lives are like.  He tracks them down and opens a can of worms, as the women must face their lives and decide whether they ever lived up to the promise of their names.

I hope these books will help keep you entertained over the next month or so as we face the wintery weather ahead. Stay safe and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!

By Suzanne Nash

I don’t know if anyone else has had this problem since COVID raised its ugly head, but I have to admit that I have had trouble reading since about March. It seems to finally be getting better, but the trouble has seemed to be an issue of focus.  The written word has been difficult for me to follow and this is devastating as reading has always been my way of dealing with anxiety.  Normally I can get through five books in a week but lately it has taken a month to read one.  I have compensated by using audible books to keep my mind occupied, but it isn’t the same. September marked the break from this difficulty, and I have finally been able to sit quietly and absorb the written word once more. What has arisen out of this is a greater appreciation for the ability to read and absorb information….I find myself gorging like a starving person desperate for food and the only frustration is that I still have other work to do and I can’t spend all my time between the covers of a good book.

Here is a selection of books that I have discovered both through audible as well as my latest print reading material and I hope they will inspire you to read more as we move into the Holiday season that is well on the way! Next issue will be my Christmas list issue so get ready for lots of ideas for Christmas gifts!

First up is a wonderful book by local author, Liza Taylor Nash.  Etiquette for Runaways is the perfect solution if you are looking for something that touches on the familiar.  It is filled with loads of familiar local spots and touches on the famous bootlegging that occurred in the area during the 1920s.  May Marshall has to run to escape the legal noose her father’s moonshine business has slipped over her neck and finds herself in New York, assuming a new name and a new story of her life. Carefully she crafts her new persona and uses her sewing skills to become part of New York’s Jazz Age Theatre scene.  Along with the opportunities come the temptations of the big city and addiction slips into May’s life as she crosses the ocean to the glorious glow of Paris. Will May fall through the rabbit hole and end up losing her family and former life or will she find a way to pull herself back to the home she loves.  This is a great gift to send to your friends who want to experience a little bit of Keswick through a fictional narrative.

The next two books have similar titles but are very different in their subject matter. The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna by Juliet Grames is a family saga focusing on the life of one woman who is either blessed or cursed, depending on your perspective. Stella has dementia but her sister Tina begins to tell the curious tale of her sister and how she came to the USA and how she survived. Death weaves itself throughout the tale like a character unto itself as Stella fights for independence in a world that conspires to keep her tied up in responsibilities and stereotypes. This is a fight that pits Stella’s love of her family and her struggle to survive despite the constrictive expectations that are constantly foisted upon her.

The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turtin is a very different sort of mystery.  At first, I was a bit unsure what was going on.  The male narrator seemed to be a bit confused, not knowing who he was, but after a while I realized this story played with time and the narrator was jumping from different people inside the story.  Each time he wakes up as a different person he has the opportunity to discover who is going to murder Evelyn Hardcastle.  The ominous figure of a masked individual serves as his guide and explains to him the rules of this very macabre game.  He must solve the murder if he is ever going to escape this day and this estate.  It is a race to the end to solve the mystery before someone else does.  I loved this very original storyline and I did not figure it out until the very end.  It is very clever and well written. This is the only storyline this month with a male protagonist.

If you enjoy fact rather than fiction, then I think you will enjoy the next two books. 

In The Reporter Who Knew Too Much, author Mark Shaw takes a look at the life and mysterious death of investigative reporter Dorothy Kilgaller. A force to be reckoned with, this amazing petite woman was the star of What’s My Line and a media icon, whose radio program kept her American audience riveted during the 50s and 60s. It is a wonderful and exciting read that will make you start thinking about conspiracy theories in a whole new way. Dorothy had been investigation the death of JFK and she claimed to be getting close to an explosive reveal.  But then she dies mysteriously and all of her notes, including an inclusive interview with Jack Ruby, goes missing. Once you start reading all of the facts that Shaw uncovers, you too will start to wonder about what really happened!

Jason Fagone also explores the life of a strong and determined woman in The Woman Who Smashed Codes.  This is the true story of the American cryptography pioneer, Elizabeth Friedman.  Never heard of her?  Well that should come as no surprise, as J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI took credit for all of her work and he did everything he could to wipe out her contributions to history.  It was only when her notes and letters were discovered that it was revealed how much she did to win World War II.  She triumphed over 3 Enigma machines and personally decoded over 4000 Nazi messages during her time working with the US Coast Guard Intelligence Division.  She and her husband met while working at an eccentric textile tycoons enclave called Riverbank Laboratories. At the time cryptography was a relatively new field and she and her future husband, William Friedman became experts in their field. This is such an amazing look into the life of a woman whose legacy is embedded in our lives today through coded cell phones and WIFI. It certainly didn’t make me like Hoover any better than I did before. 

The next few books take place over seas.

Anatomy of a Scandal by Sara Vaughan takes place in England, where Sophie finds herself defending her husband James when he is accused of a terrible crime.  Sophie’s perfect life begins to crumble as she starts questioning things from James’ past. Kate is the lawyer hired to prosecute the case and she is positive that James is guilty.  Why is she so sure of his guilt?  These character’s backgrounds begin to come to the forefront, as the past comes back to haunt them all. It is a very good thriller that might remind you of The Girl on the Train and it will keep you guessing as page by page you are handed clues like a drip feed. 

 At The Water’s Edge begins in Philadelphia in 1944, but moves swiftly to the UK when Madeline Hyde and her husband, Ellis, run away to Scotland after a New Year’s Eve party proves disastrous to their reputations.  Ellis’ father has cut them off financially, so the feckless husband and wife, along with their friend, Hank, take off across the pond, in an effort to regain their legacy by proving the existence of the Lock Ness monster, a feat Ellis’ father had very publicly failed at years earlier. Maddie is left on her own in a village that doesn’t really welcome strangers but slowly she befriends the villagers and falls in love with the area. Her relationship with the villagers changes her as she realizes how much of a struggle survival is for so many people.  Her life has been charmed and her privilege had blinded her to other’s needs. She begins to see that her values are a bit skewed. Slowly she begins to see the real monsters just beneath the surface of her world.

 And finally, I suggest The Women in Black by Madeline St. John, which was written in 1993 and takes place in 1950’s Australia.  I just love this little book.  As I read it, I realized it is also a movie I had watched on Prime Video, but as is often the case, the book is better than the movie which is called The Ladies in Black.  Goodes Department Store in Sydney, Australia provides beautiful clothing for the discerning woman and the ladies who work there are the main characters of this sweet book. There is thirty-year-old Patty who is married to the quiet, stern Frank.  Then there is Fay, who can never meet the right guy but keeps looking for love, and Magda, who is the glamourous Slovenian overseeing the high-end gowns department.  All of the women working in the clothing department are required to wear black, thus the name of the book. Each of them has thoughts about their workmates but none of them are true friends who feel loyalty to each other.  They are wrapped up in their own dramas and struggle each day to keep from letting their problems overwhelm them. When a naïve young girl named Lisa comes on board as part time help before she is to head off to University, these women suddenly find a common bond and the story develops into a wonderful tale of transformation. Their lives begin to intertwine and what blooms is a beautiful friendship between ladies who find their strength through each other. 

I hope these lovely little books will give you lots of escapism during the next few months and get you ready for the Holidays.

By Suzanne Nash

What a strange summer we have had, but the cool weather of fall is here, and the smell of apples and pumpkin bread are starting to fill the air. It’s time for crisp days and cozy nights by the fire and it’s also time to get ready for Halloween – so here are a few tales to set the mood. Some are older releases, and some are newer finds. So, I hope these take your minds off some of the turmoil around us.

Wakenhyrst by Michelle Paver was one of New York Times best books of 2019 and is a bit of a gothic mystery that takes place in Edwardian Suffolk. If you like creepy old houses, this is the novel for you. It is 1906 and a manor house sits at the edge of Fens (which happens to be a wilderness of water with whispering reeds). Nice creepy setting isn’t it? In this Manor house called Wake’s End there is a young girl, Maud, who has grown up without a mother and under the thumb of a repressive father. As you move through the story you cannot decide what is real or supernatural and there is a overriding feel of psychopathy present. The beginning of the book sets the tone with a historian named Edmund Stearne using an ice pick and geological hammer to kill someone. He spends the rest of his life in an asylum. Why did he do it? Maud takes the reader through the unraveling of this mystery and keeps a tension between the supernatural and religion. There is a focus on a painting in the areas church called a DOOM painting which were often painted on church walls during the 12th and 13th centuries to depict the last judgement. It was generally the last thing people viewed as they left the church, so they were reminded of the fate that awaited them if they didn’t mind their Christian duties. Most were destroyed during the reformation but in this tale this painting provides the fodder for a descent into madness.

The Loney is another English gothic story which debuted in 2015 and explores superstition and religion. Author Andrew Michael Hurley takes us to the seaside to follow the lives of the Smith family who, along with their parish’s new priest, travel to the Loney for the “cure.” Hanney Smith, the eldest son, is a mute and the mother hopes for a cure during the Easter Service there. The narrator is Hanney’s younger brother, who is nicknamed Tonto by the priest. The Loney is in the area of Morecambe Bay in northwest England, described in the text as “that strange nowhere between the Wyre and the Lune” and it is indeed whole character unto itself. This wild and unearthly landscape shapes the tale and the Catholic faith seems to be a battle with nature, as the reader struggles to determine what is supernatural and natural. Hurley admits that the landscape and atmosphere of this particular coastal area of England affected how he wrote the story and you can see how his prose matches the wilderness of the scene. It will pull you in and is the perfect read on a chilly fall night with the lights down low!

Now of course since Halloween is at hand, we have to have witches so I thought The Witch Finder’s Sister might be a good choice. This story by Beth Underdown is based on real events. It’s 1645 and Alice Hopkins returns to Essex after the death of her husband. In her absence, her brother Matthew seems to have climbed the ladder and acquired a great deal of power. He has become obsessed with finding witches and putting them on trial. Now Matthew Hopkins was indeed a real person and a “witch hunter” during that time. He may have had a sister and this story revolves around the premise that his sister may have had a different view of his rise to power and the consequences of his obsession. Matthew travels throughout England in his search to root out evil and just as it was in Salem, Massachusetts, it is chilling to see how quickly people can turn on each other.

I read The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave, while on lockdown in London but immediately thought it was a good Keswick Life fall choice. In 1617 near a small Norwegian Island called Vardo a group of men are out fishing when a sudden storm comes up and all of the island’s men are lost at sea, save the priest. Vardo now becomes an island of women and together they have to figure out how to survive this tragedy. Eighteen months later a Scotsman named Abslom Cornet is sent with his new wife to the island to be their commissioner. When he arrives, he finds something rare in that time, a land filled with independent women. He becomes intent on rooting out the evil he finds in this place and all of those who he deems to be witches will soon face his wrath. Maren is one of the narrators along with the commissioner’s wife Ursa and together they tell a story of rebellion, customs, and headstrong determination. Once again, this story is based in the reality of the storm and of the 1621 witch trials. Of particular note is the discrimination against the Sami, who were the indigenous people of Lapland. The Sami customs and beliefs came up hard against the Norwegian religious traditions and there are many cases of Sami being brought to trial and killed for being witches in Norway. I was fascinated as I knew very little about the Scandinavian or Lapland history.

The Darkness is a mystery set in Iceland and is the first in a series by Ragnor Jonasson. Detective Hulda Hermannsdottir works for the Reykjavik police. At 64 years of age she is being forced into early retirement and during her last two weeks she is given a cold case to investigate. The body of a young Russian asylum seeker has washed up on a remote beach. She soon discovers that the original officer handling the case was inept and that this is not a suicide as was previously reported. When Hulda discovers another similar death, she begins to piece together the connection to sex working in the area and find the lack of concern by local authorities disturbing. Hulda was always considered difficult to work with but as more and more people refuse to open up about the murders, she becomes more determined to solve this case before her time in the force is finished. The author is considered a master of Icelandic thrillers and CBS has just struck a deal to create an eight-part series of this book so read it before it comes to your TV screens!

The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well by Meig Wiking

In keeping with the Scandinavian bent of the last couple books I thought you might also enjoy this one. It’s the perfect little introduction to the idea of Hygge, which will help you transform your world into a cozy place of calm this fall and winter. It is one of my favorite little books to help you feel snuggled up and comforted in a world of craziness!

I hope you all enjoy the fall weather as much as I do and are able to eat loads of apples, take lots of walks, and read loads of books! I promise I will be getting more to you soon.

By Suzanne Nash

While we are stuck social distancing and masking up every time we go out in public, one of the benefits of CoVid is that we have more time to be creative and work on our pile of books that have built up by our bed. Reading doesn’t require being near anyone and you can enjoy it without a mask!  Here are a few more good choices to enjoy during these long summer days.

Queen Bee by Dorothea Benton Frank is a great summer read that takes place in the North Carolina low country in a place called Sullivan’s Island. Librarian, Holly McNee Jensen, lives on the island, quietly keeping her bees and looking after her mother who rules the roost.   She is finding herself drawn to her widowed neighbor, Archie and his two boys.  Suddenly the peace comes crashing down when her sister moves back to town after her husband reveals his dream to be a female impersonator. Funny and sure to entertain, it’s a wonderful pool side escape.

I loved Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert when it was first published, so I just had to read Gilbert’s latest book… City of Girls.  In it, a young girl named Vivian enters the bright world of New York City’s Theatre in 1940s. Kicked out of Vassar, she is looking for meaning and fun at the Lily Playhouse.  It is a coming of age novel that has loads of sex and a bit of intrigue.

In a completely different vein, Catherine House by Elizabeth Thomas, is a spooky tale of an unusual private university, where you spend three years with absolutely no contact with the outside world. Young Ines doesn’t have a problem with being sequestered away when she is issued an invitation for entrance to this exclusive learning establishment.   Ines is on the run from something or someone and as she settles in and finds a few friends, she starts to wonder if maybe coming to Catherine House might prove to be a lot more dangerous than her former troubles.

All Happy Families is a wonderful and revealing memoir by debut author, Jeanne McCulloch.  In 1983, in the East Hamptons, a wedding is being planned and all of the guests are arriving…but there is a problem…the bride’s father is dying. Instead of cancelling the wedding Jeanne’s mother pushes everyone forwards, and so begins the story of how Jeanne went through with her wedding in the midst of grieving for her father.  The family dynamics play out with the beautiful backdrop of the Hamptons’ shoreline and their family home.  The differences in backgrounds between Jeanne and her husband are explored and her longing for a more wholesome and homey family life explains how she is drawn to her in laws, even though she doesn’t always understand them.  It is a very poignant look at how the desire to keep up appearances can cause lasting effects that take a lifetime to deal with.

So stay safe and healthy and keep your mind active and alert this summer by reading loads of interesting books!

By Suzanne Nash

Sometimes when you read as much as I do, you forget which books you have written reviews for. You stumble into some really amazing books and can’t wait to write about them and then you put them aside for something new. I actually had to go back and check to make sure I hadn’t already written about this month’s offerings because I read them in December and loved them and thought that I had certainly already shared them with you… but I hadn’t… so you are in for a treat!

I loved, loved, loved The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek and have been meaning to tell you about this wonderful historical fiction by Kim Michele Richardson. In the 1930’s President Roosevelt created a Pack Horse Library Project to serve those people living in the Appalachia area who wouldn’t normally have access to libraries. This novel follows the story of Cussy Mary Carter who was one of the lady librarians working on the Pack Horse Project. The fact that she was a woman who was holding down a job back then was amazing enough but to add to that she was “colored”… but not in the way you might expect. She was a blue Kentuckian… which I thought was just something made up by the author, but in fact there were a group of people living in Kentucky who were actually blue and shunned because of their unusual hue. The 1930’s in Kentucky, things were hard. People struggled to put food on the table and reading was considered a luxury that few could afford. Many in the town did not like the idea of the Pack Horse Project and went out of their way to make things difficult for the librarieans. If you were a young woman you were expected to get married just as soon as you could and Cussy’s father was no different to most of the men in that town. He expected his daughter to entertain suitors by the light of the courting candle. Cussy, however, wasn’t interested in getting married again after her first husband abused her. She loved the freedom and challenges of taking her books through the mountains to those people who lived far beyond the road system. While she was frustrated by the color of her skin and how that impacted her life, she didn’t see any way to move past it. Fighting against all of the prejudice, Cussy shows how books have the power to transport and transform you. This book will do just that. I highly recommend it!

The Trustee from the Toolroom by Nevil Shute is a classic written in the 1950s and you may be familiar with the author from his more well-known book, A Town Like Alice, or even The Far Country. It was published after Shute’s death in 1960 and if you are someone with an engineering mindset, then this is the book for you. Keith Stewart is a very sweet humble technical journalist who lives with his wife in England and he is pretty happy with his quiet life and spends most of his time focused on small scale precision machines. When his flamboyant sister and her husband die in a shipwreck off the coast of Polynesia and leave their 10 year old in the care of Keith and his wife, Keith must make a decision what will pull him out of his comfort zone. He knows the secret hidden in his brother-in-law’s boat and he must somehow get to it before it is lost forever. It is serious when it comes to the engines and parts it talks about, but it is also poignant and lovable, and I didn’t find the engineering talk off putting in the least, but actually endearing because of the joyful glee of the people discussing them. This is the story of a modest man who is amazed by the esteem others hold him in and it is just wonderful as the story unfolds. It also really puts into perspective the idea that simple joys are sometimes the best joys.

So, if you are looking for a book that addresses some of the pitfalls of our time, Civilized to Death: The Price of Progress by Christopher Ryan may be just the book you are looking for. I read this in January before really facing the crisis we are currently in. I may just reread it with a different mindset. Ryan asks the question, “How do myths and lies become the truth?” We believe that civilization is humankind’s greatest accomplishment, but is it? Perhaps progress isn’t inherently good. He asks, “Were pre-civilized dangers more dangerous than what we face today?” …Wow, that is certainly a loaded question right now! He writes that maybe we should move backwards to create a better tomorrow and argues that “progress” is a lot like an advancing disease. His arguments are fascinating, and he makes some very interesting points that are worth exploring. I found myself being swayed by many of his premises and also ended up looking some of the anthropological data he quotes because it was compelling. If you like debating and playing devil’s advocate with your friends, and I do, this this will give you a lot to talk about at the next Zoom gathering!

Lanny by Max Porter is a fantasy read mixed with the environment of an English village. For me, when I am looking for escapism, there is nothing better! This is a powerful story of the land and nature and the forces that hide within it. The author can write you into a child’s head in a truly magical way and Lanny is a child like no other. He is unusual and connected to the land around him and he spins his path around the village. His parents struggle to keep track of him as he wanders the village and wild spaces and he puzzles the adults and children alike with his strange questions and thoughts. When Lanny goes missing the world turns upside down for his parents and the village gossip becomes bitter and vile. This is not a sweet little English book that spins a dreamy version of the village life. No, it grasps and tugs out the words and thoughts of the neighbors, who spy and connive and lie, always judging and comparing. I think the language in this book is spectacular, especially the whispering of the green pagan spirit who shape shifts and go as by the name Dead Papa Toothwort. He seems to suck in the murmurings of the different conversations occurring in the village around him and the dialect and dialogue are delicious in every way. I think spring is the perfect time to read this novel because it is green and growing and you can feel vines curling around your fingers as you read. Just don’t let them choke you before you finish the book!

By Suzanne Nash

Greetings from London! When I left Keswick in early March, I expected to be home by now, but COVID-19 caused some unexpected changes and as I write this, I am sitting in a flat in Westminster on lockdown. What’s the best thing about lockdown?? Why reading, of course! For someone like me, telling me I have to stay in and not go out… it isn’t really a hardship… I just look on my kindle, my iPod and my bookshelves and start reading or listening to a book on tape. Use this opportunity to catch up on all those lovely books that you have been wanting to read! The first thing I do when I come to London is to head to my local bookstore. This time was no different and luckily, I managed to get in before all the stores were ordered to close.

I always choose books that will enrich my time here and so I wanted to share my choices with you…

84 Charring Cross Road and The Duchess of Bloomsbury are two offerings in one lovely book written by Helene Hanff, and the first selection is a classic, written years ago. If you have never read 84 Charring Cross, it is really a series of letters that were mailed from the author, Helene, to a small bookshop called Marks and Company in London beginning in 1949. Her correspondence with Frank Doel is just wonderful. Over the years you see their relationship grow and warm as they discuss books and Helene’s generosity extends to mailing packages to all of the staff of the bookstore to ease the strain of rationing in London at the time. It is such a beautiful example of how the love of books can bring people together and create unexpected relationships. I really love this book so much, not just because of Helene’s wonderful taste in used books and interesting subject matter but her thirst for knowledge for knowledge sake. Her love of beauty in the form of leather-bound, gold gilded pages makes her a woman after my own heart! Add to that her imaginings about London and her love affair with a city she had never visited, and I am hooked. The second half of the book is The Duchess of Bloomsbury and this follows her as she finally realizes her dream of visiting London and what she finds there. I will not give anything away because you really must read this and find out what happens, but I will tell you that I return to this book again and again as it always makes me smile. I keep a copy of it at the flat in London and always try and read it when I am in the city. If you love books, literature and anything BBC, this book is for you!

A book that will get you out of your home and traveling in your mind is another of my favorite authors and again, a classic Bill Bryson’s Notes from a Small Island. This wonderful travel book is considered by the British people to be the book that best represents Britain… and get this… it is written by an American! Bryson is considered to be an adopted national treasure because he has managed to fondly capture the sometimes-hilarious characteristics of this island nation. While it was written in 1995, it is still able to capture the weird, wonderful and strange bits that makes England so quirky. Bryson was leaving his home in Northern Yorkshire to move back to the USA for a few years and he decided he needed to take one more trip around England before he set off for America and this book is the result of his travels. He is so funny and droll that you will laugh out loud, especially if you have been to England or have British friends. When I try to explain to my English husband why I enjoy London and England so much, and why he was so keen to escape it… I have only to open up with this book and it captures it all perfectly. Bill Bryson manages to express all those feelings so well, when my words just can’t do it justice.

I decided to add in a thriller for those interested in something to make the heart race a bit. I picked up The Doll Factory by Elizabeth MacNeal while I was here, as it takes place in London in the 1850’s. Iris and Rose Whittle are sisters working in Mrs. Salter’s Doll Emporium. Iris is deformed with a twisted collarbone and believes she is too ugly to love, but she knows she is a skilled painter and is passionate about her art. She is frustrated that all she is painting these days are dolls’ faces. Her sister, Rose, was at one time a beauty destined to marry a handsome suitor, but smallpox ruined her beauty and with it her chances of love. The sisters’ relationship is strained and sad, and Iris cannot understand why Rose is always resentful and cruel to her. Anger and jealousy create an unbearable situation made even worse by Mrs. Salter’s drug abuse and hateful attitude. When painter Louis Frost stumbles upon Iris, he feels inspired by her and asks her to model for him. She agrees on the condition he gives her painting lessons. The choice to model means that Iris must turn her back on her sister and family, as modeling is considered an inappropriate occupation, but the choice suddenly gives Iris more freedom than she could ever have imagined and also puts her in more danger. A second story line threaded through all of this is the character of Silas, who is a taxidermist and collector with a morbid preoccupation with Iris. There is a sordid and seediness of the underground London that MacNeal deftly captures. The Pre-Raphaelite painters are wrapped into the narrative, though their characters are not fleshed out as much as I would have liked. It is worth taking a look at Louis Frost’s paintings as you read this book, so you have a better idea of what paintings are being discussed. The rivalry and friendships between the painters are glanced at but not fully developed, yet I believe reading this book will be a good springboard to other books touching on this subject. The exploration of the art scene as well as the visit to the Great Exhibition give the reader a fascinating look into the bustling city in the 1800’s.

I hope these three books give you a little bit of joy and fun as you hunker down and self-isolate and next month, I will give you another group of lovely distractions!

By Suzanne Nash

The next two months I am going to do a little something different.  I was inspired by an English book shop to take a look back at the last 20 years of what was popular in the bookstore world across different genres, including children’s books.  Because it is a pretty long list of books, I thought I would divide it into the next two months. Some of these I have read and reviewed and some I have not, but it’s interesting to remember what we were reading and what we may have missed. My list from 2000-2009 follows:

2000

• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
• His Dark Materials: The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman
• Storm Breaker by Anthony Horowitz
• The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
• White Teeth by Zadie Smith
• Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
• Persepolis 1& 2 by Marjane Satrapi
• The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
• London by Peter Ackroyd
• The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
• Experience by Martin Amis
• The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh
• Bad Blood by Lorna Sage
• A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
• When I Lived in Modern Times by Linda Grant
• English Passengers by Matthew Kneale
• Arthur: The Seeing Stone by Kevin Crossley Holland

2001

• Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling
• Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman
• Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
• American Gods by Neil Gaiman
• The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
• Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve
• A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket
• Atonement by Ian McEwan
• The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
• The Magicians’ Guild by Trudi Canavan
• Life of Pi by Yann Martel
• Austerlitz by W. G. Sebald
• My Name is Red by Orphan Pamuk
• True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey
• According to Queeney by Beryl Bainbridge
• Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand
• The Wind Singer by Willliam Nicholson
• Empire Falls by Richard Russo
• The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

2002

• Coraline by Neil Gaiman
• Any Human Heart by William Boyd
• Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
• Eragon by Christopher Paolini
• The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
• Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
• If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor
• Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
• The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber
• Spies by Michael Frayn
• White Mughals by William Dalrymple
• The Impressionist by Hari Kunzru

2003

• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon
• The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
• A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
• Dissolution by C. J. Sansom
• The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
• How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell
• Stasiland by Anna Funder
• We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver
• Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
• The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
• Oryx & Crake by Margaret Atwood
• The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
• Empire by Niall Ferguson
• Eat, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss
• Brick Lane by Monica Ali
• Giving Up the Ghost by Hilary Mantel
• Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
• Vernon Good Little by DBC Pierre
• A Gathering Light by Jennifer Donnelly
• Thursbitch by Alan Garner
• Property by Valerie Martin

2004

• Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
• Watching the English by Kate Fox
• Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver
• Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce
• Gillead by Marilynne Robison
• Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
• The Various Haunts of Men by Susan Hill
• Chronicles Volume 1 by Bob Dylan
• Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
• Attention All Shipping by Charlie Connelly
• The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinhurst
• Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke
• The Spook’s Apprentice by Joseph Delaney
• Travels with Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuscinski
• Old Filth by Jane Gardam
• Fleamarket Close by Ian Rankin
• 2666 by Roberto Bolano
• How I live Now by Meg Rosoff

2005

• Never let me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
• Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief by Rick Riordan
• Harry Potter and the HalfBlood Prince by J. K. Rowlings
• Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
• Kafka on the Shore by Murakami
• Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
• The Island by Victoria Hislop
• Looking for Alaska by John Green
• The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
• The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
• On Beauty by Zadie Smith
• The Sea by John Banville
• Rapture by Carol Ann Duffy
• Magyk by Angie Sage
• Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel
• Postwar by Tony Judt
• Hitler’s Canary by Sandi Toksvig
• Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson
• March by Geraldine Brooks
• Arthur and George by Julian Barnes
• Stuart by Alexander Masters
• A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian by Marine Lewycka
• 1599 by James Shapiro
• Marley and Me by John Grogan
• Untold Stories by Alan Bennett
• Like a Fiery Elephant by Jonathon Coe

2006

• The Secret- 10th Anniversary Edition by Rhonda Byrne
• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
• The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
• Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy
• The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
• Once by Morris Gleitzmann
• Eat, Pray, Love by Eizabeth Gilbert
• The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright
• The Arrival by Shaun Tan
• The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein
• Fun Hoe by Alison Bechdel
• The inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
• The Audacity of Hope by President Barrack Obama
• Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
• The Lay of the Land by Richard Ford
• Be Near Me by Andrew O’Hagan

2007

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowlings
• The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
• Ottoline and the Yellow Cat by Chris Riddell
• The Gathering by Anne Enright
• Born to Run by Michael Morpurgo
• The Shack by William P. Young
• Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer
• The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
• The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
• The Discovery of France by Graham Robb
• Darkmans by Nicola Barker
• Peeling the Onion by Gunter Grass
• The We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris

2008

• Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Stroud
• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins 
• The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Annie Barrows
• Bad Science by Ben Goldacre
• The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
• Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyers
• Leviathan by Philip Hoare
• The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale
• Homicide by David Simon
• A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz
• The Road Home by Rose Tremain
• The Rest is Noise by Alex Ross
• Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer

2009

• Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
• Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
• One Day by David Nichols
• A Death in the Family by Karl Ove Knausgaard
• The City and The City by China Mieville
• Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
• The Help by Kathryn Stockett
• The Spirit Level by Kate Pickett & Richard Wilkinson
• The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
• Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick
• The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
• Open by Andre Agassi
• Home by Marilynne Robinson
• The Junior Officers’ Reading Club by Patrick Hennessey
• The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell
• Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin
• Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi by Geoff Dyer
• Let the Great World Spin by Colum Mccann
• A Gambling Man by Jenny Uglow
• The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham by Selina Hastings

By Suzanne Nash

Now because I was just asked recently to give a few recommendations for children and teens I am including a couple suggestions, both old and new, for the younger readers.

Children who like Harry Potter style stories might find The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill a good choice. It was a 2017 Newberry award winner and introduces the world to Luna, a young witch who struggles to control her powers.

A Song for Ella Grey by David Almond is based on the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Claire is Ella Grey’s best friend and she is there to witness a love so strong that even death will not destroy it!

A beautiful retelling of a classic legend, The Maze Runner series by John Dasher is a great choice for boys and girls. If you liked The Hunger Games then this series will keep you enthralled. It follows Thomas, a young boy who wakes up to find himself trapped in a constantly changing maze with other boys. It is part of a whole series that has been made into blockbuster movies but there is nothing better than reading the original!

With that theme in mind, consider reading or rereading Little Women prior to seeing the movie adaptation that has just come out in movie theaters. It is a wonderful book to read out loud with your kids.

The Enemy by Charlie Higson is a young adult post-apocalyptic horror story that takes place in London. A worldwide sickness has stuck, turning all of the adults into something akin to zombies and the children have formed groups to combat the threat. There are the Morrison Crew, the Waitrose Crew, and others who struggle to survive and find safe haven. There are seven books in this series so if you like the first one the you are set for your reading material for a while. Higson also wrote the first four books in the Young Bond series, which are also great reads if you are into James Bond!

A book to keep your eyes out for in the new year is The Dark Lady by Akala. It is a dubut novel written by a British Hip Hop artist, journalist, poet, and activist who I rally admire and while I haven’t read this book as it is not out yet, I am intrigued and excited about the buzz I have heard thus far. Akala is inspired by the sonnets of Shakespeare and he has transformed the Renaissance world into a magical one were a young thief and orphan named Henry must find his way. But he has magical power to comat the dark world in which he lives. I am hoping this book will be available in 2020 in the USA and I am really looking forward to picking one up!

He has also written a children’s book called Hip and Hop: You Can Do Anything that has a good message for kids about following your dreams, written in a rap format.

By Suzanne Nash

As a New Year approaches it is time to stock up on a pile of books to get through the winter months that lie ahead. If you are still looking for a gift for someone because you are behind in your holiday festivities or you received gift card to your local bookstore, I have some great choices to make the winter months pass quickly.

I hope this gives everyone a good selection of diverse material to take you into a new year full of reading!

In Hotel Neversink, Adam O’Fallon Price introduces the reader to generations of Hotel Neversink’s owners and the mystery that continues to haunt it through the years. This is a multilevel tale with narration from Jeanie (the original owner’s daughter), Leonard (her son), a maid named Hannah, and multiple others who have been touched by the disappearance of children from the hotel. First, a young boy goes missing then a young cousin of the Jeanie, named Alice. Alice manages to escape the killer but cannot reveal who it was who abducted and attempted to strangle her. Built by a Jewish immigrant in the 1930’s, this Catskill hotel is loved by some members of the family and is despised by others, but no one can deny that it has created a community of people who help keep it running and who preserve the history and stories of its past. Hopefully someone will discover the identity of the killer before another child is harmed.

I immediately picked up The Spies of Shilling Lane when I saw it was published because author Jennifer Ryan also wrote The Chillbury’s Lady’s Choir, which I loved and reviewed last year. I couldn’t wait to dig into her latest novel, and I was not disappointed. Mrs. Braithwaite is quite a character. She is bossy, noisy, and tends to steamroll all those around her. No one is particularly sad when she is ousted from her leadership role at the Women’s Voluntary Service (WVS). Hurt and angry, Mrs. Braithwaite packs her bag and heads to London to visit her errant daughter, Betty, only to find her missing. Betty does not have a good relationship with her mother, and she has not been completely honest about her activities, to help in the war effort, Betty’s shy and retiring landlord, Mr. Norris, finds himself bullied into accompanying Mrs. Braithwaite as she goes on the hunt for her daughter. The adventures commence! It’s a lovely story that will make you laugh and keep you guessing.

Moving along from fiction to fact, Crisis in the Red Zone: the story of the deadliest ebola outbreak in history and of the outbreak to come by Richard Preston tackles a subject the author has covered before. The subject matter is crystal clear from the title. I was introduced into the world of ebola years ago when I read Preston’s first book, The Hot Zone, which transfixed me with the story of how this virus first emerged from a cave in Africa and described the devastation it wrought. His latest work is no less spectacular in its ability to explain the current condition and issues around this deadly virus. At the end of The Hot Zone, the conclusion was that ebola, while scary and horrible, was containable because it only mutated within animals, but now scientists have learned through the latest outbreak that the situation has changed. While the subject matter may not be something you think you would enjoy reading about, Preston is a very talented writer who can convey clinical information in a very readable way that informs and pulls you in. He has woven the facts about the outbreak and subsequent deaths with the personalities and dedication of those who fight to keep this virus from spreading. These are remarkable people who put their lives on the line every day to help those in peril and keep the world safe. They are passionate, caring people who risk their health and safety because they want to stay one step ahead of the most dangerous viruses that exist in the world. I love Preston’s writing style and I think we all need to be aware of what the CDC, Doctors Without Borders, and other organizations are doing to thwart a very real threat!

The Sisters of the Winter Wood seems a perfect winger tale to enjoy in front of the fire with a cup of cocoa. It’s a fantasy story that combines Jewish history and folklore and is a debut novel by Rena Rossner. I really enjoyed Rossner’s unique style that paid homage to her roots in Ukraine. There is a village near Moldova and Ukraine where Liba and Laya live. They live outside the village because they both come from a long line of shape shifters and their parents are determined to keep them safe and unaware of their lineage. When their parents leave them alone to deal with family matters far away, both girls learn the secret their parents were keeping. Liba finds herself shifting into a bear and swan-like Laya longs to take flight. This is a beautiful, lyric story of secrets and divisions between people. It combines the fairy tale aspect of goblins, shapeshifters, magic, and animals with historical events. The language is a beautiful combination of Yiddish, Hebrew and Ukranian. What is amazing is that this fantasy is based on the very real backdrop of the Pogroms in that area. It really adds another layer to the idea of the beast that lies within each of us. I loved this story and its message!